


Itsy Bitsy Frank

by AvaDiablo



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Birthday, Gen, Presents, Spiders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-17 09:53:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4662270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvaDiablo/pseuds/AvaDiablo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whoa, Jun's birthday! And Jun has a rare morning off as a present to himself. So, who is ringing his doorbell and shouting out his name at three o' clock in the morning - and more importantly why?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Itsy Bitsy Frank

Jun put his head underneath his pillow and moaned softly into the mattress to drown out the noise still presenting itself. The racket came from outside; outside his bedroom with the door closed; outside his living room and hallway; outside his apartment. And he knew for a fact that his apartment building wasn't all that noisy, so who ever was outside banging on his front door and calling out his name was waking up neighbours on several floors. 

Not only was there commotion at the front door, but his phone had been ringing incessantly preventing any kind of sleep at nearly 3AM in the morning. It was a good thing he had most of the morning off, but he really wanted to be asleep at this time of night. Instead, he dragged his sorry ass out of bed and stomped off to genkan to open the door for the only person on the godforsaken planet who had the nerve to call on him at this unholy hour.

Throwing the door open dressed in nothing but his grey pyjama slacks he hissed angrily: "Knock it off, Aiba-chan! Are you insane?!!"  
He grabbed his friend by the collar of his coat and yanked him inside rather harshly, slamming the door shut. He didn't bother to see if there were any curious neighbours outside; he would learn soon enough if and when the building's manager would call to check up on the noise.

Aiba was taking in the sight of Jun as if it just dawned on him that people slept at this hour of night. His eyes lingered on the grey slacks as he let his eyes travel over the lean torso of the other to meet Jun's eyes. He looked sleepy, kind of annoyed and his hair was ruffled. The whole image of his younger friend made Aiba smile; which made Jun roll his eyes, as he was still waiting for an explanation - which better be good. Aiba however looked a bit dazed and out of it, more than his usual self. Jun frowned at the sight of his friend. He had his coat open and carried a bag as if he was expecting a sleep over.  
"You look like Momo-chan," Aiba said with a little wonder and awe in his voice. Jun sighed a little frustrated.  
"What the hell were you thinking, Masaki?!" he replied, ignoring the other and the way he kept staring at him; still upset with Aiba trying to wake the whole building  
"I was thinking the last episode of Kimi wa Petto," his tall friend answered a bit wonder struck, "Jun-kun, you look totally-"  
"Aiba-san! Focus!" Jun cut in angrily, "Please! It's 3AM in the freaking morning!" 

Aiba blinked as if he just realised it was way past midnight and he looked kind of embarrassed as that sank in.  
"You were sleeping?"  
"Duh!!" came the annoyed response, "What the heck do you want? What is so important you had to come all the way here?"  
"You didn't pick up the phone," his friend said, combing his fingers through his wildish hair as if that explained all.  
"It's past 3AM!" Jun gave back with a gesture of his hands that enforced the words and his irritation.  
Aiba nodded to that, not wanting to annoy Jun more than he already had.  
"Can I come in, though?" Aiba looked like a lost puppy as his eyes flickered to his, with a shy smile he hadn't seen in a long time.  
Jun sighed. He might be in a bad mood, but if Aiba was in some kind of trouble, he did want to know how he could help him.  
"You're already inside. We might as well get something to drink," Jun said leading the way to the living room with attached open kitchen, "You better have a great reason for showing up at this hour and reaping havoc upon my poor neighbours."  
Aiba blushed at that and apologised, taking off his shoes and leaving his bag in the genkan as he hurried after Jun.

Jun's apartment was organized, apart from some mangas lying on the couch and coffee table. Some were titles Aiba had lent to him not too long ago. Jun walked around the cooking island and fixed them drinks to which Aiba looked funny.  
"Lemon water? Really?"  
Jun shrugged not wanting to explain. They went to sit in the living room, on the couch. Jun stacked the borrowed mangas neatly into piles on the floor before taking his seat.  
"So what are you doing here, Masaki?"  
Aiba smiled.  
"First, you have to know I wasn't planning on coming here. Honestly!" he added seeing the doubtful look in his friend's eyes, "I went to Nino's first. Since he lives closer. But he was sick and Riidaa was there to take care of him."  
Jun's eyes showed concern upon the news that Nino wasn't feeling well.  
"Ohno found some tips on the internet to counter seasickness, so they spend the day at sea," the slightly taller guy explained, "I'm guessing the tips didn't work as Nino looked pretty green around the edges. Oh-chan said to just go straight to you. And here I am." It sounded rather cheery and Jun failed to see the logic to his cheeriness.  
"Satoshi-kun told you to come here?" Jun frowned some more, "I'm pretty sure he meant during the day, Aiba-chan, not at three AM in the morning. But that still does not explain why you are here."

Aiba sighed not knowing where to start as he looked at his hands. Looking at Jun with his sharp gaze wasn't helping him explain any of it.  
"Well, I recently acquired some new pets," Aiba started, venturing a look at his friend with this information. Jun just nodded. He wasn't too crazy with Aiba's choice in pets, there always was something wrong with them, or with Aiba for taking them in. But he was nothing if not a supportive friend.  
"Let me guess, you have too many. I'm not getting pets, Aiba-chan."  
"No, that's not -"  
"Did one of them die?" That could be a possibility, Jun thought as he eyed his friend. Aiba always did have a strong attachment to his pets. If that was the case, they needed to plan a funeral type of thing.  
"No, no, they're all fine... one way or another, any way," he said reluctantly after the initial negative.  
"Then, what is it?"

"I had the perfect pet for you. Easy to keep and maintain; doesn't require a whole lot of attention and-"  
"I really don't want a pet, Masaki."  
"Well, you won't. Because..." Aiba hesitated and looked even more away, "I kind of lost it." Jun frowned by this new piece of information Aiba reluctantly gave him.  
"You've lost my pet?" Jun asked in surprise; eyes a bit wider giving voice to the next question, "How do you even lose a pet?"  
"Well I forgot to lock it up proper, I guess."  
Jun blinked.  
"You got me a pet that needs to be locked up?"  
Aiba nodded. "Oh, Jun! It's really cute. Furry and is wickedly blue with white stripes. I know you like blue, right, because of Riidaa." Aiba grinned, but the brilliant smile was lost on Jun who was trying to figure out what kind of animal was blue - with stripes no less.  
"But now Frank is gone," Aiba sighed.  
"Who's Frank?"  
"Your pet spider."

Jun was stunned by the answer. And he had a hard time figuring out what irked him the most. The fact that Aiba got him a pet; that the pet's name was Frank or that Frank was a spider - a blue striped spider. As he wondered about it he couldn't say anything and just stared at his friend in sheer shock.  
Aiba still looked embarrassed and troubled when it dawned on Jun that this situation presented a problem. As he thought about it he wondered whose problem it would become.  
"How deadly is this spider we are talking about?"  
Aiba blinked in surprise at his friend for even asking the question.  
"Not deadly at all! I wouldn't give you a deadly spider! This one is easy to keep - if I still had it." The surprise of the ridiculous question wore off and Aiba resumed being a little troubled.  
"So,"Jun had to ask, "if it's not deadly, then why are you here?"

"Um, well, I didn't want to be home by myself."  
Jun's disbelieve at the unlikely answer slowly turned to a smirk thinking about Aiba being home alone with a run away spider on the loose, and his smirk became laughter.  
"This is so typically you, Aiba-chan! Really!"  
Aiba didn't look like he trusted that change in heart all of a sudden.  
"This isn't funny, Jun-kun," he complained to which Jun immediately waved his hands and countered that this was the most funny thing which had happened between them all year. When Jun stopped giggling and just smiled a half smile bumping his shoulders into Aiba's.  
"Why in heaven's name would you get me a spider?"

"Well, you live alone here. And it's not good that you live alone. And you obviously hate all of my pets."  
"I don't hate your pets. I'm just not compatible with them."  
Both of them remembered the time Jun had offered to watch Aiba's pets when he was out of town. Jun mostly remembered the part where things went wrong and Aiba remembered the hectic mess when he got back as he found Jun lost and upset in the middle of his chaotic living room. Honestly, he had never seen Jun that much on edge, ever.  
"Anyway, " sighed Jun's friend, "I thought about it and I decided you needed some form of companionship."  
"But a spider? Even for you, that's stretching it, Aiba-chan."  
"No, no, it makes sense when you think about it! And this one came with all the paperwork. It's totally legit and not endangered, I personally checked." Aiba sounded proud and it made Jun kind of happy he had done some research on it.

But then Jun frowned, wondering how much Aiba even knew about tropical spiders. He assumed Frank was tropical. Even in Japan there weren't all that much blue spiders running about.  
"I first wanted to get you a purple one. But, man, they are kind of aggressive." Aiba was looking up from his hands to watch Jun and smile radiantly as he saw Jun's lips twitch into a soft one of his own. "They really are. And their venom is not all that great either. Nasty little critters. And then I came across Frank. And she is really sweet."  
"She?"  
Aiba smiled.  
"Her full name is Francesca Evangeline," he struggled with the English pronunciation, "I shortened it to Frank." Jun nodded as he understood.  
"And now Frank is gone. Shouldn't you be home, hunting it down?"  
"I called some people to do that," Aiba's eyes turned pleading as he folded his hands, "Can I please stay here for the night?"

Jun was not a person to turn down a friend in need, no matter how ridiculous the situation. Together they made a bed on the living room couch for Jun's surprise guest. By then Jun kept yawning and apologising to which they agreed to called it a night. Aiba sighed happily taking his bag from the genkan to change and brush his teeth. Jun waited patiently until his friend was done; taking the time to fix them two glasses of water. Stifling a yawn, he waited until Aiba was snugly lying under the covers before turning off the light.  
As Jun closed his bedroom door he truly felt exhausted. He still had troubled finding the logic in Aiba getting him a pet spider named Frank. Who in their right mind would call a spider Frank anyway?  
He crawled into his bed, putting the glass of water on the night stand, and tuned into the silence that fell around him. He checked the time on his phone; not even 3.20AM. 

Sleep came easy. For a few hours there was blissful nothingness, sweet dreams and happy thoughts about sunshine and spring rain showers. His alarm chimed on his phone and he moved to turn it off; happily knowing that he didn't have to get up right this moment. Sunlight tried to stream in, easing out the darkness of night. The curtains blocked most of the bright morning sun as Jun tried to sleep some more. Sleeping in was such a nice and welcome treat; he smiled into his pillow thinking about the dreams he had had, vaguely remembering Aiba coming into this bed room complaining that it was cold in the living room. Jun couldn't remember his answer but as he felt fingers tickle his side over the covers he murmured to Aiba that they didn't have to get up now. He didn't even know if that was true, Jun couldn't remember what schedule Aiba was on as sleep grew heavy within his mind. Aiba probably had crawled into his bed regardless of his answer; though Jun expected he would've said 'yes' to the request, anyway. 

The fingers stirred again and Jun smiled feeling a mix of bother and bliss at Aiba's manner of trying to get him to wake up. He also knew that if he stayed quiet, Aiba-chan would giggle at teasing his friend. And even through his usual morning grumpiness, Jun would snuggle up against him; being the close friends that they were; enjoying his company - as long as Aiba would make coffee and breakfast. After all, Aiba was the reason Jun was awake now and not sleeping in as Jun had planned.

The pressure of the hand shifted from his side the small of his back.  
"Aiba-chan, leave me alone. I want to sleep some more," he breathed half into the pillow, putting his arms under it. Aiba stayed perfectly still. Jun couldn't help the smirk. Had his friend been practising staying quiet. The fingers moved again; over his behind turning around and travelling back to his back. Jun sighed mumbling 'All right, all right, I'm awake', expecting to see a broad cheery grin and assuming his tall friend wanted to talk about something fun and totally illogical. Jun slowly turned around, feeling groggy from sleep and he yawned and stretched. Aiba's hand moved along as he did.

One arm draped over his head, blocking some of the light, letting the other fall in the hopes of hitting his friend accidentally on his arm, shoulder or head. His arm fell on an empty mattress. He lifted his arm a little and looked straight at the wall as Aiba was clearly not in the room. His eyes shifted to his stomach to see what pressed against his abdomen; staring at a very blue furry critter with shiny black fangs the size of toothpicks; Frank! She didn't look to damn friendly from this angle as he stared at the fangs in sheer shock while his brain tried to come up with frantic thoughts about escaping this clear and present danger which slowly crept around on his chest.

His first reaction was to throw the covers over the beast, but when he moved Frank stilled as if watching his every movement. But spiders couldn't really see, right? Jun began to wish he had stay up more nights watching 'creepy critter' shows on the Discovery Channel. Maybe this was one of those spiders which could see clear and even jump before he could move his arm. Visions of him screaming with Frank biting down in his flesh filled his senses, making him immobile for the moment. Maybe Aiba didn't think Frank was creepy; he obviously he had not seen this new threat from this point of view! 

Jun found it hard to breathe. With every freaked out breath Frank moved; and the upward and down ward motion of the eight legged pet, cause by this breathing, didn't help stifle the panic coursing through his veins. He called out to Aiba; his voice being no more than a whisper. Jun would have rolled his eyes at himself if he didn't think it was dangerous to advert his gaze from the blue nightmare watching him.  
Would this be it? Was he going to be pet food? He was nearly 32 years old! And that wasn't old at all. He tried moving his hand a little underneath the pillow in an awkward angle. Francesca looked strangely annoyed by the movement but remained where she was. This was one of those moment where thinking 'spiders are more afraid of you, then you should be of them' did nothing good to conquer the panic. More over, being afraid of spiders was hard wired in the DNA of people. He knew that much, at least. So, him being tensed up and stressed out to the max was completely normal. Jun felt his heart pound and skip beats every time Frank moved. 

Jun was sending her positive thoughts as his hand inched towards the phone underneath the pillow. _Please, please, please, stay there. I'm not going to hurt you. But if you move I am not going to control my actions, Francis._ From some weird reason he liked Francis better than Frank. She was a female after all. And really blue, like the metallic kind. _If I accidentally kill you Aiba will be very mad at me. We don't want that, right? So be a good little spider and just stay where you are. Or better yet! Just leave! Go, hide under my bed or something because I'm really nice, really I am!_ Jun nodded by the thought, hoping he looked sincere even if it Frank showed no reaction. _It would really be better if you moved, little spider. Then we can call Aiba-chan and he will come rescue us both!_

Aiba was on speed dial and Jun only had to press one button and hope that his phone understood his frantic whispering. Feeling the touch of plastic against his fingers caused his whole body to cheer and Frank shifted closer as a result. _Oh, don't do that! Shoo, go the other way!_ Jun's mind got crowded by the image of Francesca crawling up in his face and staying there, doing lord knew what. The horror caused a shiver he couldn't stop while he tried not to breathe to hard in Frank's direction. Jun was not going to end up as her breakfast! He pressed the button he felt and heard a small beep as the microphone indicated he could speak.

"Aiba!" he called out in a husk whisper fearing the name would be the last he spoke in his life. He didn't dare look away from the creepy pet which moved her legs in a rhythmic pattern at the moment; her fangs in full view and he could see her matching shiny eyes reflect his horrified appearance. The phone rang in the other room after a few seconds. The relieve washed over him and made him relax for just a split second; second in which he fancied Aiba swinging the door open and catching his pet of death and saving the day; after which Jun would never want to see him - or any of his pets - every again! Working in Arashi would become very weird, he thought comically to himself. The phone kept ringing and the thought occurred that Aiba could be away and he just forgot his phone when it - thank god - connected and his sleepy voice was heard.  
"What?" he murmured sleepily, "I am not making you breakfast, Jun. You are on you own." It sounded like Aiba had fallen asleep halfway through the last sentence.  
"I found Frank!" Jun hissed in a panicked whisper, but the other end stayed quiet.

The dread which washed over him was akin to finding Frank on his stomach.  
"Aiba!" he hissed again, the dreadful predicament more noticeable in his voice; _Oh, please don't tell me you fell asleep. I have no way of calling you back. Don't leave me here alone with the spawn of all things evil!_ as the door was opened slow and carefully and Aiba peered into the room with just his head passed the door. He had a bowl and a notebook with him as he walked in further. Even though Aiba looked very much concerned, he also carried that sunshine smile on his lips that weirdly enough made Jun feel a whole less panicky and alone. It also occurred to Jun he wanted to catch this beast of hell like he would a normal stray garden spider.

"Relax Jun-kun," Aiba said moving next to the bed. In sheer horror Jun watched as Aiba stretched out his hand and almost completely covered the giant spider. Images of the spider attacking his friend's hand flashed through his mind. Aiba smiled as Frank pulled her legs in and made herself really small. Aiba folded his fingers carefully around her and lifted her up. Jun felt instant relieve, but his eyes still followed Frank who was now put into the bowl by Aiba who talked softly to her and covered the bowl with the note book.  
"Thanks," Jun nodded feeling troubled and shaky, his voice a bit off sounding as he pulled his legs up and hugged them.  
Aiba held the bowl up with his hand flat on the book and smiled brilliantly while giving a curt nod.  
"For some reason she must have tagged along in my pack and got out while we talked. I'm happy I got her back."  
He presented Jun with the bowl.  
"Happy birthday, Jun-kun. Here's your pressie!"

**Author's Note:**

> Frank is a not an all to aggressive spider. And she belongs to the tarantula family name Poecilotheria Metallica.  
> I am aware that handling this great spider is not correctly written, but it's just a story, and I'm arachnafobic so 'gomen ne', haha. ;)
> 
> I'm sure Aiba has a spider friendly terrarium for her - but I doubt Jun wants to keep her  
> [This is what Frank looks like](http://tinyurl.com/nzuvf3p)


End file.
